from www.lvrj.com – Taylor Stevens was a valedictorian who studied criminology at the University of Toronto, but then she tried her hand at solo webcam porn, became a star, lost 180 pounds (from 300 to 120), and now she’s beating cancer with a smile as bubbly as her boobs.

Stevens moved to Vegas a year ago, and she will meet fans at this week’s Adult Entertainment Expo and Adult Video News Awards. So if you see her, now you will know her vivid story.

“I pretty much grew up on my own. I lost my father when I was young. I was 6 years old when he passed away.”

As a kid, Stevens and her family were “at odds,” so she found a support system in a friend’s family.

She worked hard – first at McDonald’s, then cocktailing, and ultimately she landed a job as a recruiter for a mobile phone company.

“I had an office,” she says. “I loved it.”

But a friend mentioned to Stevens she could be a webcam model, and the idea intrigued her.

“I always wanted to be an entrepreneur. I wanted to make money. I wanted to make a name for myself,” Taylor says.

“It was hard to believe at first that you could. But I said, ‘Let me try.’ I got on camera and said, ‘This feels completely natural!’ ”

She was 220 pounds, known as a BBW – “big beautiful woman.”

“I had somebody tell me, ‘You’ll never make it, because you’re fat.’ There’s no better motivation than someone telling you you can’t do something, and you proving them wrong.”

Her cam (at www.taystevens.com) was an instant success.

“Ninety percent of the time, I’m talking” with men on video, she says. “We’re talking sports, and we’re having fun.

“I’m also bouncing around and being all sexual, too. But it’s really like a date. It’s a total girlfriend experience.”

She turns down offers to film hard-core scenes with men and women, and (unlike some porn stars) she neither strips nor escorts on the side.

In March 2006, her BBW status had to change. She ballooned up to 300 pounds. Her doctor told her she was nearly diabetic.

She immediately began exercising three hours a day, shrinking to 120 pounds in 13 months. She kept her BBW followers and gained new fans.

But then a few years ago on Christmas Eve, she got yet more bad news. She was diagnosed with first stage non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

“That was such a bitch.”

On her site, she posted empowerment videos of getting her head shaved.

“That’s a scary thing for a model,” Taylor says. “But I felt like I need to show people beauty is from the inside. There’s a lot of gorgeous people out there that are really ugly to me, so I want people to see the truth.”

Stevens has finished radiation treatments.

“I just stay really positive,” she says.

Her late father is her inspiration.

“Those six years – I remember everything about him. When I got sick,” she says, “I went to visit him at the cemetery. It was surreal.

“It was like he was saying to me, ‘I love you, I want you to be with me – but not now.’

“I was like, ‘OK, Tay, you’ve gotta get up and fight this. It will only make you stronger. Do it – if not for yourself – do it for your dad.’

“I had to give in, give up, or stand up and fight. And I’m a fighter, born and bred.”

So here she is, Tay Stevens, online girlfriend experience.

How much does she earn?

“I never give out the details, but I work very hard,” she says. “I’m on cam a lot. I’ve built up a name and a brand, so I make an excellent living.”